As the international media clambers to idolise the now well established disruptors, Air BnB, Uber and Amazon, Southeast Asia has its own bevy of thriving challengers including Grab, Lazada, Redmart and many more. As these disruptors seek wrestle market share away from established companies with new business models and outstanding customer service, modern finance departments need to embrace new technology and roles to stay ahead.

Predictable Disruption

Just as these disruptors have been fuelled by the proliferation of web 2.0, mobile devices and 4G, the next wave of emerging disruptive technologies presents new opportunities for companies that embrace them, and threats for those who do not.

It's clear that these technologies are going to lead to another echelon leap in business and the majority of enterprises can see this change approaching, the big problem is however is that many organisations are too busy with incremental developments to effectively leverage these emerging technologies.

Worryingly though, a new report by Harvard Business Review Analytic Services reveals that this is only partly happening. The report found that that 80 percent of the 783 survey respondents (from a range of industries, job functions, global regions and organisation sizes) agreed that digital disruption is coming to their industry and nearly half believed that their organisation's traditional business model will be obsolete by 2020. The real shocker however is that fewer than half said their organisation has a digital strategy in place to adapt!

With the current generation of disruptors already here and 2020 just three years away, we are in a period where rapid changes in regards to competitors, consumer behaviour, and certainly technology are the norm, meaning organisations need to move quickly, starting now.

The Opportunity to Lead

It's during these fast moving times that the quality of a business' decision-making will prove to be one of the most important factors in its success. Of all the positions within an organisation, management accounting is particularly well suited to step-up and bring professional rigour to such decision-making, including decisions beyond purely finance ones, by ensuring that decisions and performance management are informed by the proper analysis of the relevant information.